Documents served but no proof

This topic has been locked as no posts have been made within the last 90 days.

L

LLnotsocool

1 Posts

0 Thanks

Hello all

I am on my 4th set of tenants for my flat and up till now have not had any problems. With my current tenants, however, there have been problems with water ingress and damp. First there was a leak from the flats above (council owned) which was eventually repaired. Then there was water running down the walls. I had the council come in (as I thought it was a recurrence of the leak or some other problem) and it turns out that it s the result of condensation - the tenants had been drying their clothes inside the flat (even though there is a very good (Miele) clothes dryer available for that purpose. I suspect also that they have not been heating the flat adequately (all in a bid to save money).

I contacted the tenants (2 weeks ago) after I received the council's report (note this is not a repair order or any such thing - the council were on the back foot because of the earlier water damage and as I had accused them of causing yet more damage, they came to take a look). The report did suggest remedial actions to take which I acted upon immediately - forwarding the council's email to the tenants and suggesting that they follow the recommendation of the council and alter their actions; I also undertook to install additional extractors and offered them the use of dehumidifiers (at my expense). My tenants have become unresponsive since the council revealed that it was their actions that resulted in water running down the walls (previously we communicated very well by phone and email). My email to them went unanswered and when I contacted the wife (they are a couple and all my comms so far tend to be with the wife), a couple of days after I sent the email she said she would get back to me that same day but never did. 13 days later, today, I have just texted her asking her again to respond to my email.

I have decided to sell the flat as I am away a lot and managing it is becoming painful. I need to evict my tenants. After doing some research I realise now that though I served all the required documents at the start of the tenancy, I failed to obtain receipts for them and one of them (the 'how to rent' guide) was served by email and I hadn't obtained the tenants' consent to serve notices via email. Rather than serve the section 21 and only find out after the 2 months notice period has elapsed that it is invalid because of the above,

can I serve these notices again?I am going to try to gain their consent to visit the property and when I am there, tell them that i need to evict them. Is it best to re-serve the three documents and the section 21 at the same time? What if they refuse to acknowledge receipt of the re-served documents? I plan to take along a witness and record the exchange, if possible - Is that sufficient if they later decide to play hardball?